Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
Andrea Macchi
National Institute of Optics, National Research Council (CNR/INO),
Adriano Gozzini research unit, Pisa, Italy
Enrico Fermi Department of Physics, largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3,
University of Pisa, I-56127 Pisa, Italy
www.df.unipi.it/∼macchi
Lights of Tuscany, Pisa, December 17, 2015
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Focused light interaction with matter: an old story
Leonardo da Vinci:
Studies on reflection
by burning mirrors.
Codex
Arundel
(1480-1518), British
Library, London.
Archimedes’ mirror burning Roman ships.
Giulio Parigi, ab. 1600. Uffizi Gallery,
Stanzino delle Matematiche, Florence, Italy
First attempts to “strongly” modify matter with intense light
(heating, phase transition, ionization . . . )
Intensity of Sunlight: I ' 1.4 × 103 W m−2
with “ultimate” concentration ∼ 104 → I ' 107 W m−2 at focus
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
The dawn of laser-plasma physics (1964)
“The laser is a solution looking for a
problem” (D’Haenens to Maiman, 1960)
Q-switched lasers (1962):
10 GW on ∼ 10−4 m spot
→ I ' 1017 W m−2
sufficient to ionize and heat matter
up to billions degrees: hot, dense
plasma state
J. Dawson, Phys. Fluids 7 (1964)
Plasma generated by blasting droplets with a
laser 6000 times a second: an efficient UV
source for lithography.
Credit: ETH-Zurich/B.Newton
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Modern Petawatt (1015 W) lasers
National Ignition Facility (US): ∼ 1 MJ/1 ns=1 PW
used to drive nuclear fusion by implosions (credit: LLNL, USA)
Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI)
under construction: ∼ 150 J/15 fs=10 PW
“λ 3 ” pulse with intensities up to
I > 1027 W m−2
several other petawatt facilities
opening worldwide
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
extreme-light-infrastructure.eu
CNR/INO
High field interaction regimes
- Instantaneous ionization:
2
laser field EL e/rBohr
atomic field
- “Relativistic” regime: electron oscillation momentum
posc = eEL /ω me c
present
limit
- Dominance of radiation friction
(electron interaction with its own field)
- Collective QED effects, cascades, vacuum nonlinearity
- Schwinger limit EL > m2e c3 /eh̄ pair creation from vacuum
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Relativistic nonlinear optics in plasmas
Relativistic dynamics makes electron response nonlinear:
J⊥ = −ene v = −ene
p
ine e2
EL
=
γ
me ωc (1 + (e|EL |/ωme c)2 ))1/2
→ “relativistic” self-focusing, high harmonic generation, selfinduced transparency, electromagnetic solitons, . . .
A. Macchi,
“A Superintense
Laser-Plasma
Interaction Theory
Primer”
(Springer, 2013)
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Development of laser-plasma ion accelerators
Artist’s view of
superintense
laser
pulse interaction with
a thin solid target: a
charge–neutralized,
sub–picosecond multi–
MeV, ion bunch is
accelerated
Principle of coherent (or collective) acceleration [Veksler (1957)]:
accelerating field and particle energy are proportional to the
number of particles accelerated
Macchi, Borghesi, Passoni, “Ion acceleration by superintense laserplasma interaction”, Rev. Mod. Phys. 85 (2013) 751
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Light Pressure Acceleration
Basic model of mirror boosted by light:
force and mechanical efficiency η easily
derived by Doppler shift and photon number conservation
dP 2I 1 − β
=
dt
c 1+β
η=
2β
1+β
I=N
h̄ω
c
[see also: Simmons & McInnes, Am. J. Phys. 61 (1992) 205]
Light pressure was introduced by Maxwell (1874) but also independently (1876) by Adolfo Bartoli (born in Florence, student
of Physics in Pisa) on the basis of thermodynamics arguments
[Bartoli, Nuovo Cimento 15 (1884) 193]
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Early vision of laser-driven acceleration (1966)
α-Centauri
A solution to “Fermi’s paradox”:
“Laser propulsion from Earth
. . . would solve the problem of
acceleration but not of deceleration
at arrival . . . no planet could be
invaded by unexpected visitors from
outer space”
mirror
(BUT a scheme for deceleration was proposed:
R. L. Forward, J. Spacecraft 21 (1984) 187)
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Our research on light pressure acceleration
Theory and simulation:
A. Macchi et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94
(2005) 165003; 103 (2009) 085003.
M. Tamburini et al, New J. Phys.
12 (2010) 123005; Phys.
Rev.
E
85 (2012) 016407; A. Sgattoni et al,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 105 (2014) 084105;
Phys. Rev. E 91 (2015) 013106.
Experiment (collaboration with
Queen’s University of Belfast and
many others):
S. Kar et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100
(2008) 225004; 109 (2012) 185006
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Plasmonics: catching light with a grating
x
Surface Plasmons
are collective elec- Ey , Bz
tron modes propagating at a metalvacuum interface
~
E
~
B
ε1
ε2
~k
y
SP allow light confinement and field
enhancement and can be excited by
EM waves incident on a grating or
other microstructures
Plasmonics has several applications (biosensors, nanoelectronics, photovoltaics . . . )
Our challenge: extend plasmonics into the high field regime
(nonlinear, relativistic, . . . )
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
High intensity laser-grating interactions
Electron
acceleration
by “surfing” the Surface
Plasmons in the relativistic regime
L. Fedeli et al, Phys.
Rev.
Lett. (2016) in press
Proton acceleration
boosted
by SP-enhanced
absorption
T.
Ceccotti
et
al,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111
(2013) 185001
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
Collaboration with CEA and
CNRS Paris-Saclay, France,
and others
CNR/INO
Excitation of picosecond, unipolar high field SP
A
transient
laser-driven
charge separation acts as a
giant “antenna” for unipolar
SPs of picosecond duration
K. Quinn et al, Phys. Rev. Lett.
102 (2009) 194801
Experimental proton images
Applications: THz pulse
generation, bioelectrics,
ultrafast control of particle
beams
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
Application to advanced laser-plasma ion acceleration
The SP current pulse is sent along a coil to be used as a
synchronized wave for proton focusing and post-acceleration
S. Kar (QUB Belfast), UK patent;
S.Kar,
H.Ahmed,
R.Prasad,
M.Cerchez,
S.Brauckmann,
B.Aurand,
G.Cantono,
P.Hadjisolomou,
C.L.S.Lewis,
A.Macchi,
G.Nersisyan,
A.P.L.Robinson,
A.M.Schroer,
M.Swantusch, M.Zepf, O.Willi, M.Borghesi,
“A laser-driven travelling-wave ion accelerator”,
Nature Communications (2016), in press
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
The race to extreme light continues . . .
The several applications foreseen and the possibility to investigate “exotic” regimes (e.g. collective QED) drive the development of more high power facilities
Some 10 PW lasers in construction across Europe:
ELI (1.5 kJ/150 fs), APOLLON (150 J/15 fs), VULCAN (300 J/30 fs) . . .
A future vision: multi-fibre laser for Exawatt (1018 ) power
[Mourou et al, Nature Photonics 7 (2013) 258]
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO
. . . as well as applications involving plasmas
A lightsaber based only on laser technology looks unfeasible,
BUT a plasma-based one might work (at least, partially!)
G. Sarri
(QUB Belfast)
“How to build a real
lightsaber”,
The Guardian,
December 11, 2015
Andrea Macchi
Superintense Light Interaction with Matter
CNR/INO